The Spete Blog

The long anticipated (if only for myself) day has come! Andrian Adventures is available to buy at Smashwords.com! (More vendors will be coming soon, but it takes a few days) You can purchase it and download it onto your Kindle, Nook, iPad, whatever :) Do it! And please enjoy. Andrian Adventures (can be found by following the link) Many, many thanks to Lauren Krieger for the adorable cover :) Here is the full version of it

Well, despite all my worries, I've managed to glop my novel together into something essentially cohesive and at 50,015 words, it is gloriously and happily finished! Now I have all kinds of ideas for putting it as the middle book in a trilogy... but I need to take some deep breaths and sit back and plan for a while before I dive back into a new project. As The Wish and the Wolf (as I decided to randomly name it) proved, falling into a novel with no idea of where I'm going isn't exactly a good idea. So, I gained some experience, and now have the longest novel I've ever written under my writing belt. (Although Andrian Adventures is so close and growing!) Andrian Adventures, of course, does not count as a new project, since it's basically been ongoing for the past three years :) While NaNoWriMoing (while avoiding writing) I thought up some fun ideas for AA, and those will have to find their ways into the story. Good news! The cover is almost complete, and soon An...

Well, I'm over 60% of the way there! Exciting stuff. This novel is just getting crazier and more and more confusing each day, but I am remaining optimistic that I'll be able to wrap it up in some sort of logical, if not concluding, way. ...that might be all I have to say for it. Today I plan on buckling down and writing, and spending the time that I usually spend avoiding writing researching and preparing for an interview I have tomorrow. It should be a productive day! Word Count: 30,304 Outlook: It's all good?

Yes, it's true. Today's goal was the amazing 25,000 words, and I'm there. This might be appropriate: So yes. I've killed off the character of Andrew, who was one of my main protagonists, but now I'm having all kinds of regrets about it, and I have no idea where I want to go in the second half of my novel. I don't even know how I'm going to end it. Not a problem! Hakuna Matata! I've considered starting up a novel that I quit halfway through (25,200 words in), which is far more entertaining and interesting (and that actually has a planned plot) but that might totally ruin the whole purpose of writing a novel in a month. Actually, that would absolutely defeat the purpose. So, I might work on it once I've made my word-goal for each day, but I have to stick with this and see it to the end. ...I'm halfway there! Words: 25,154 Outlook: Meh

Well! After my first week of NaNoWriMo, I have absolutely concluded that next year I'm going to plan out my novel much more than I did this year. This year I started with an opening paragraph in my head, and three vague character ideas. Being a week in, I wonder how I'm going to make this stretch to 50,000 words, but I suppose that I owe it to myself and my characters to see them to the end. They're just going to have to suffer so, so much on our way there. Also, this will give me plenty of time to develop my villains. So far I only have one, but I might as well add another one or two, just for kicks and giggles. Why not. :) My current villain goes by the name of William, and he's kind of mean so far. He has gone fishing for a magical creature and was mean to it (that sounds like something from a children's book...), and just recently he kidnapped my main character (oh no! It's ok, she's a werewolf, she can handle it haha). He likes to act all nice and f...

Alright, so it's the beginning of Day 5 of NaNoWriMo! I'm still not very sure where my novel is going to go, but I keep telling myself that I have time to figure that out. We'll see :) In other news, I spent some time last night trying to decide if I actually liked one of my two main characters, and if it wouldn't just be better if I had him killed off. I haven't killed off a character in a long time... and I have to think of what implications that would have for the rest of the characters and the story. Still, it's always good to try out something new! On the other hand, I don't want this to be a particularly dark novel, and I don't want to be flippant about a main character's death... so I guess I'll figure it out Also, I can tell that this is going to be a long month. I can see now that there's a very good case for planning out where a novel's going to go before you sit down and start writing it. :) Word Count: 7,580 Outlook: ...

No way, Novembeard freaks me out. Anyway. It's November 1st, and I'm starting NaNoWriMo off with a bang. Speaking of bangs... I have them. So much for my previous hairdresser saying that because of my surgery scar I couldn't have them. I'm getting off topic. The story is (of course) fantasy, maybe probably most likely absolutely Young Adult, and already completely ridiculous. I mean, a plot isn't necessary right? But then again, it's just day one, so there's no pressure yet. Word Count: 3,236 Outlook: Optimistic

It's (almost) November, and you know what that means! It's National Novel Writing Month! This year, I'm all kinds of prepared (although really, how can you ever be prepared to sit down and write a novel in a month?) and this time, I'm going to finish it! What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? This! http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ...have you ever found yourself lying around, wishing you could write a novel? Have you ever contemplated becoming a hermit for a month? Have you ever said to yourself, "why is there nothing interesting in November?" or "How can I escape all of these Christmas commercials?" Look no further. NaNoWriMo is here for you. For those who don't know, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, starting November 1st, and ending the 30th. You can track your progress online, commiserate with fellow writers in your area, and become a recluse for 30 days. It's also a great excuse to drink a lot of coffee (or other caffeinated beve...

Let's be real; I'm not good at blogging. Still, I decided to put up an update for the world to enjoy! The cover for Andrian Adventures is in the works, and I've now finished one whole chapter of Part Two, which probably gets me a huge celebration, and maybe a trip to Lion's Tap. This means that I now have one chapter and two half chapters completed, which is exciting stuff, you know, considering that I've been "working" on Part Two since... June. Also, I was at the library today (when am I not at the library?) and re-discovered all of my teenage-hood author crushes. Notably Patricia C. Wrede, who I'm still willing to fan stalk around the Twin Cities until we can become best friends. Disclaimer-- I've never creepily stalked her... well, only online, which doesn't count. Right? Right. It's fun getting back into YA fantasy... I think during college and after I graduated I decided that I wanted to read Big Kid Books so I've mostly been...

Moved today! You know it's an exciting time in your life when you make the momentous trek from one Minneapolis suburb to the adjoining Minneapolis suburb. No big deal I live the high life :)

This morning I was thinking about antagonists in my stories, and realized that I'm actually horrible at creating really solid evil characters. I have plenty who are snotty, or rude, or sort of grumpy, but not any villainous  villains. I think I'll work on creating someone spectacularly wicked for the second part of Andrian Adventures. I'd like to stay away  from the usual fantasy/fairy-tale stereotypes, and since I've already made a wicked wizard for the first part of AA, I guess that's out. Maybe it'll be a recurring antagonist-- should they go from being good to bad? Time to get to work :) In other news, here's a picture of some alien beer. We actually didn't find this in Roswell, but in Las Cruces... in hindsight, I wish I'd tried some. I was flipping through pictures on my phone and was filled with regret :)

As it turns out, in Andria, three witches control the magical shenanigans that always seem to be happening. Is it super weird to have them travel by magic carpet? Brooms just seem ridiculously inconvenient, not to mention uncomfortable, and really not practical for traveling long distances. I mean, not like a magic carpet's super practical either.

Today I'm totally pretending to work on Andrian Adventures Part 2.   I'm not getting far. :)

Hello all! From here I will update on story/novel progress, ideas, pictures, and the usual bloggy things. Every blog should start with a pug, right? Here are two :) an old pug and puppy!